South Korean Firms Face Attacks Of ‘White’ Hackers
South Korean firms are under fire for not being careful about computer hackers and losing some data to the foreign companies.
Lee Jung-hoon, one of the top "white" hackers in South Korea, was allegedly leaving the Samsung SDS on November and transferring to Google. In October 2015, Samsung SDS hired the 23-years old Lee after dropping out from the university. The finger-pointing regarding who to blame in the incident occurred after the rumored transfer of Lee to Google.
"Lee left the company because Korean companies or, in a larger context, Korean society, do not acknowledge white hackers as legitimate professionals," media reports said.
"I think Google is a better choice than Samsung to realize my dream of becoming a cybersecurity expert," Lee said in Business Report.
On September 28, Samsung SDS denied the speculations about Lee's plan to transfer to Google. The company said that the contract of Lee expires in November and he has not mentioned anything about transferring to Google.
In 2013, Lee established his name when he won the third place in a hacking competition at "DEF CON" which is one of the largest yearly hacker conventions in the world and was held in Las Vegas. Moreover, in March 2015, Lee hacked the browsers of Apple Safari, MS Explorer 11, and Google Chrome in the global security conference called "Pwn2Own 2015" in Canada where he won $225,000.
According to a report, Lee's job description at Samsung Company was to search for all the problems and defects in all electronics made by Samsung and fix those defects.
"There are many cases overseas where those with competitive hacking skills can be hired by companies or researchers. Korea, however, is a tough ground for hackers to sustain themselves because companies there do not buy their exceptional skills if they do not have proper credentials like school degrees or licenses," said Hong Min-pyo, CEO of mobile security company SEWorks.
Furthermore, according to a report, Samsung was desperate to hire Lee and assigned him as a key player for the cyber security sector in the company before signing him.